It is a surprisingly common reality for numerous technologists.
That doesnt mean that there arent good situations. I would LOVE to work with business co-founders with these backgrounds
- They already have 10 customers in mind, have done mockups, have done validation with customers, and you can verifiably know that the customers are interested in the technology at a particular price point before you build
- They have a friend/colleague at a key major customer who is willing to be the first customer before the technology is even built, and this can be verified
- They can bring in purchase orders before the technology is built out
- They can bring in conditional purchase orders contingent on some technical milestone
- They can bring in VC to pay technical co-founder for upfront work
- They can get front-row seat with some key industry group or policy-maker with influence
- They have prior verifiable successes (e.g., Steve Jobs, Elon as extreme examples)
All the above are worth gold. What isnt worth gold is someone who wants to sit back and chill while a technologist codes away for six months.
That doesnt mean that there arent good situations. I would LOVE to work with business co-founders with these backgrounds
- They already have 10 customers in mind, have done mockups, have done validation with customers, and you can verifiably know that the customers are interested in the technology at a particular price point before you build
- They have a friend/colleague at a key major customer who is willing to be the first customer before the technology is even built, and this can be verified
- They can bring in purchase orders before the technology is built out
- They can bring in conditional purchase orders contingent on some technical milestone
- They can bring in VC to pay technical co-founder for upfront work
- They can get front-row seat with some key industry group or policy-maker with influence
- They have prior verifiable successes (e.g., Steve Jobs, Elon as extreme examples)
All the above are worth gold. What isnt worth gold is someone who wants to sit back and chill while a technologist codes away for six months.